| 1. |
- Hardy, Timothy, et al.
(author)
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The European NAFLD Registry : A real-world longitudinal cohort study of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease
- 2020
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In: Contemporary Clinical Trials. - : Elsevier. - 1551-7144 .- 1559-2030. ; 98
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD), a progressive liver disease that is closely associated with obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension and dyslipidaemia, represents an increasing global public health challenge. There is significant variability in the disease course: the majority exhibit only fat accumulation in the liver but a significant minority develop a necroinflammatory form of the disease (non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, NASH) that may progress to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. At present our understanding of pathogenesis, disease natural history and long-term outcomes remain incomplete. There is a need for large, well characterised patient cohorts that may be used to address these knowledge gaps and to support the development of better biomarkers and novel therapies. The European NAFLD Registry is an international, prospectively recruited observational cohort study that aims to establish a large, highly-phenotyped patient cohort and linked bioresource. Here we describe the infrastructure, data management and monitoring plans, and the standard operating procedures implemented to ensure the timely and systematic collection of high-quality data and samples. Already recruiting subjects at secondary/tertiary care centres across Europe, the Registry is supporting the European Union IMI2-funded LITMUS Liver Investigation: Testing Marker Utility in Steatohepatitis consortium, which is a major international effort to robustly validate biomarkers that diagnose, risk stratify and/or monitor NAFLD progression and liver fibrosis stage. The European NAFLD Registry has the demonstrable capacity to support research and biomarker development at scale and pace.
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| 2. |
- Johnson, Katherine, et al.
(author)
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Increased serum miR-193a-5p during non-alcoholic fatty liver disease progression : Diagnostic and mechanistic relevance
- 2022
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In: JHEP reports : innovation in hepatology. - : Elsevier. - 2589-5559. ; 4:2
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background & Aims: Serum microRNA (miRNA) levels are known to change in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and may serve as useful biomarkers. This study aimed to profile miRNAs comprehensively at all NAFLD stages.Methods: We profiled 2,083 serum miRNAs in a discovery cohort (183 cases with NAFLD representing the complete NAFLD spectrum and 10 population controls). miRNA libraries generated by HTG EdgeSeq were sequenced by Illumina NextSeq. Selected serum miRNAs were profiled in 372 additional cases with NAFLD and 15 population controls by quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR.Results: Levels of 275 miRNAs differed between cases and population controls. Fewer differences were seen within individual NAFLD stages, but miR-193a-5p consistently showed increased levels in all comparisons. Relative to NAFL/non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) with mild fibrosis (stage 0/1), 3 miRNAs (miR-193a-5p, miR-378d, and miR378d) were increased in cases with NASH and clinically significant fibrosis (stages 2-4), 7 (miR193a-5p, miR-378d, miR-378e, miR-320b, miR-320c, miR-320d, and miR-320e) increased in cases with NAFLD activity score (NAS) 5-8 compared with lower NAS, and 3 (miR-193a-5p, miR-378d, and miR-378e) increased but 1 (miR-19b-3p) decreased in steatosis, activity, and fibrosis (SAF) activity score 2-4 compared with lower SAF activity. The significant findings for miR-193a-5p were replicated in the additional cohort with NAFLD. Studies in Hep G2 cells showed that following palmitic acid treatment, miR-193a-5p expression decreased significantly. Gene targets for miR-193a-5p were investigated in liver RNAseq data for a case subgroup (n = 80); liver GPX8 levels correlated positively with serum miR-193a-5p.Conclusions: Serum miR-193a-5p levels correlate strongly with NAFLD activity grade and fibrosis stage. MiR-193a-5p may have a role in the hepatic response to oxidative stress and is a potential clinically tractable circulating biomarker for progressive NAFLD.Lay summary: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small pieces of nucleic acid that may turn expression of genes on or off. These molecules can be detected in the blood circulation, and their levels in blood may change in liver disease including non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). To see if we could detect specific miRNA associated with advanced stages of NAFLD, we carried out miRNA sequencing in a group of 183 patients with NAFLD of varying severity together with 10 population controls. We found that a number of miRNAs showed changes, mainly increases, in serum levels but that 1 particular miRNA miR-193a-5p consistently increased. We confirmed this increase in a second group of cases with NAFLD. Measuring this miRNA in a blood sample may be a useful way to determine whether a patient has advanced NAFLD without an invasive liver biopsy.
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| 3. |
- Vali, Yasaman, et al.
(author)
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Enhanced liver fibrosis test for the non-invasive diagnosis of fibrosis in patients with NAFLD : A systematic review and meta-analysis
- 2020
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In: Journal of Hepatology. - : Elsevier. - 0168-8278 .- 1600-0641. ; 73:2, s. 252-262
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The Enhanced Liver Fibrosis (ELF) test is a non-invasive biomarker, suggested as an appropriate test for advanced liver fibrosis in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). This systematic review aimed to provide summary estimates of the accuracy of this test against biopsy.METHODS: In this systematic review, we searched MEDLINE, Embase, Web of Science and the Cochrane Library, for studies included NAFLD patients and undertook both liver biopsy as the reference standard and the ELF test. Two authors independently screened the references, extracted the data and assessed the quality of included studies. Due to the variation in reported thresholds, we used a multiple thresholds random effects model for meta-analysis (diagmeta R-package).RESULTS: The meta-analysis of 11 studies reporting advanced fibrosis and five studies reporting significant fibrosis showed sensitivity of >0.90 of the ELF test for excluding fibrosis at threshold of 7.7. However, as a diagnostic test at high thresholds, the test showed specificity and positive predictive value >0.80, only in very high-prevalence settings (>50%). Desiring specificity of 0.90 for advanced and significant fibrosis resulted in thresholds of 10.18 (sensitivity: 0.57) and 9.86 (sensitivity: 0.55), respectively.CONCLUSION: The ELF test showed high sensitivity but limited specificity to exclude advanced and significant fibrosis at low cutoffs. The diagnostic performance of the test at higher thresholds was found to be more limited in low prevalence settings. We conclude that clinicians should carefully consider the likely disease prevalence in their practice setting and adopt suitable test thresholds to achieve the desired test performance.
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